A Game Of Hanafuda
by TheWanderingMiko
Summary: Sesshomaru and Kagome play Hanafuda


"Okay, I KNOW you're cheating, there's no way you could score 27 points and wipe me off the map EVERY TIME without cheating!" the dark haired girl snapped at him as she threw down her cards for what seemed to be the hundredth time tonight. They were sitting on her living room floor like they did nearly every Thursday night after they both got home from work, playing a game that she obviously could NOT get the hang of.

Her fiance chuckled lightly at her outburst and gathered the cards to shuffle for another hand, knowing that she would pick up the cards and play as soon as he laid them down; no doubt vowing for yet another time tonight that she was going to beat him.

"If you actually took the time to listen when I explain the rules, Kagome, you'd realize that every time you yell koi koi at me to prolong the game, the bet doubles." Kagome crossed her arms and pouted like a miserable child as he laid out another 8 cards on the floor as well as handing off 8 more cards to her before taking the same for himself. Just as he knew that she would, she grabbed them up and looked them over.

"How about a new wager?" He offered, watching her eyes dart from her hand up to him.

"Oh? And what would that be Sesshomaru?"

"If you win we never have to play this game ever again and I will give you back your undergarments that I won in the last game…" she arched an eyebrow at him before eyeing the little pink slip of paper that had the ownership of her favorite set of undergarments written on it.

"And if you win?" His reply was nearly instant and it told Kagome something.

"No more chocolate sauce in my bed", he didn't like that it stained his sheets. The dark haired girl thought about it for a long moment, it was tempting, she hated this game right now, but the thought of Sesshomaru winning and she having to swear off the many things one could do in bed with chocolate sauce-something she'd worked very hard to get him to agree to in the first place-was almost not worth it.

"Any special rules?" she asked after a long moment of contemplation, he smirked.

"No calling koi koi." she froze dead, the only reason he didn't win within the first couple draws was usually because she called koi koi, he would no doubt win, she was doomed. But one look at the smug grin on his face was enough to make any second thoughts about accepting the wager flee from her mind.

"Fine, you're on!" He played his first card, drawing and matching to earn himself four cards. Playing her own hand she gulped, gaining herself a set of two cards and putting them in her fuda set. The game drew on, ten minutes, fifteen; thirty minutes and finally they were down to their last cards; the dark haired girl had done well but there was no doubt that Sesshomaru was ahead, and by nearly ten points at that from her figuring. There was no way she was going to win, great, she'd have to kiss two of her favorite things in life goodbye. Sighing in dismay and deciding that she might as well have gotten it over with, she played her last card.

Then she drew, the card matched the one she'd played so she got both cards back and laid them down into her fuda set. And with that, the game was done, she flopped back onto the floor, ready to start whining as the white haired man before her counted up her points; waiting for him to tell her what she already knew. She'd lost.

"Kagome…" she groaned as he finally spoke.

"Go ahead, say it, I lost…"

"Kagome"

"Goodbye underwear, goodbye chocolate sauce; I'll just have to learn to live without thee…"

"Ms. Higurashi, would you please sit up and listen to me for a moment?" she could have glared at him, he hadn't called her that since she'd been an undergraduate in his college linguistics class. She guessed that, though her look wasn't really a glare, it was probably not a pleasant look because his smirk softened slightly after she looked at him.

"You won…" Immediately she bolted upright.

"You gotta be shitting me!" He paused, trying no to laugh at the sudden outburst and pointed to five cards that she'd had in different suits.

"Goko" he pointed to the three purple ribbon cards "Aotan" and then to the three red ribbon cards "Akatan" Her brain instantly raced to play back everything he'd said about suits and cards, she didn't remember the exact cards, but she did remember the names. Goko suit was 15 points, aotan was another 6 and akatan yet another 6. She looked at his cards; Kasu suit-1 point, tane suit-1 point and Ino-Shika-Cho suit-5 points.

Very slowly, as realization overtook her, a grin spread onto her lips and she screamed out in glee and Sesshomaru smiled as she reveled in the fact that she would never have to play this game again, nor have to say goodbye to chocolate in bed, as well as get her favorite undergarments back. For the first time this night she wasn't sulking, even though he knew that she enjoyed the evenings in the end, it was nice to see what would happen if she won.

Of course, he wouldn't tell her that he'd switched their hands just to see her smile.


End file.
